Economic Weekly: Inflation concerns to spur tightening, sooner
- While the clean-up gets underway in parts of the North Island following Cyclone Vaianu over the weekend, many are grateful that the damage wasn’t as widespread or significant as it could have been
- And in a nice change of pace, the good news stories from New Zealand’s rural sector are continuing
- This week, Fonterra shareholder farmers will receive their tax-free payment from the sale of Mainland Group to Lactalis. Even if a good portion of the payout is saved, there will still be some welcome economic benefits from spending that does occur. At the same time, we have revised up our 2025/26 milk price forecast to $9.75/kgMS.
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Mark Smith
Senior Economist
Mark joined ASB in 2017, with over 20 years of public and private sector experience working as an economist in New Zealand and the UK.
His resume includes lengthy stints at ANZ and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and he has also worked at the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Mark's areas of specialisation include interest rate strategy, macro-economic analysis and urban economics.
Born and bred in the Waikato, Mark studied at Waikato University where he graduated with a Master of Social Sciences, majoring in Economics.
Mark's key strengths are the ability to use his extensive experience, inquisitive nature, analytical ability, creativity and pragmatism to dig a little deeper and to deliver common sense solutions to tackle complex problems.
When not at work Mark likes to travel, keep fit and spend time with his friends and family.
- Email: Mark